In the irrigation field, lawn sprinklers are typically dispersed around a large area in order to provide irrigation therefor. In such applications as industrial complexes, etc., large equipment is typically moved over the irrigated area. This results in a high probability of contacting sprinkler heads and damaging them. The damage can either be to the sprinkler head itself or even to the underlying water pipe.
If the sprinkler head is damaged, this results in loss of pressure to multiple sprinkler heads on a given segment of the irrigation system. This also results in the loss of a great deal of water when this portion of the irrigation system is activated, since the normally restricting sprinkler head is no longer present, thus allowing the rate of flow to the damaged segment to increase dramatically. Therefore, damage to a sprinkler head in any type of irrigation system can be costly. Further, the expense and amount of effort required to replace a sprinkler head is undesirable.
One type of system that has been utilized in the past is a pivoting member that is comprised of three right angle sections which are utilized to comprise a horizontal section extending outward from the underground irrigation pipe, a vertical section extending upward to the ground level, a ground level horizontal section which extends from the vertical section and an upward vertical section extending upward to hold the sprinkler head. Each of the three sections, the two horizontal sections and the one vertical section are pivoted about right angle connections. However, this pivot usually is implemented with a threaded section which can result in leaking, etc. Once adequately assembled, the pivoting members allow the sprinkler head to "give" whenever impacted by equipment or by an individual walking over the sprinkler head. This reduces the incidence of damage, etc. However, this present system does not provide adequate versatility in that they use threaded sections. Therefore, there exists a need for an improved pivot joint for use in this type of sprinkler apparatus.